


musician's interlude

by Marshmellow (orphan_account)



Series: friends & neighbors [2]
Category: Band of Brothers, The Pacific (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M, for the baes, just a short interlude
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-22
Updated: 2015-02-22
Packaged: 2018-03-14 12:18:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3410360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Marshmellow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eddie comes home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	musician's interlude

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to make this longer, but it just felt right to make it short and sweet instead of adding on another unrelated section. 
> 
> Thank you everyone who's read this!

Eddie both loved and hated traveling. Bouncing from city to city, playing for sometimes packed bars, sometimes empty clubs...it was exciting. It felt good. He made more than he expected, and he was getting positive reactions. He had a decent following on YouTube and Twitter, which was more than he ever expected when he first decided to do this as a career.

But the thing was, he missed his friends. He kept up a steady texting conversation with Sledge, he always sent pictures to Burgie, he made sure Snafu didn’t kill anymore, he made sure Ray and Hoosier didn’t burn down their apartment. He felt like his was missing out on so much when he was on the road, but he knew if he was back in Charleston, he’d feel like he was missing something as well. There was no winning.

And then there was always Andy.

Boy, did he miss Andy when he was gone. The two barely started anything when Eddie had to call it off when he went on tour. It killed him to do it. Andy knew it. It was so obvious it even made Lewis roll his eyes. Just when they’d finally stopped skirting around each other, Eddie had to leave. It wouldn’t be fair to Andy to spend the first two months of their relationship miles apart. To make up for the distance, they tweeted, called, texted, any platform they could use to stay in touch. Some days Eddie was so busy he didn’t even get a chance to look at his phone until late at night. But, God, was it was a nice feeling after a long day to see those notifications from Andy.

By the time he hit Lexington, Kentucky, two stops before home, he was exhausted. While he loved performing, not having anyone to share it with was depressing. He put on a small smile for his video conversations with the boys and pretended like he had everything together. Sometimes, he felt like everything he planned was all fucking itself up. He always was a family man, but he pushed himself into a career path that didn’t allow that. While his fellow tour members reveled in the groupies of their obscure music, he longed for home. It wasn’t right. Doing what you love wasn’t supposed to feel like this. 

After his gig in Lexington, Eddie holed up in his hotel room and video called Andy. He knew he should take it as a sign that he would rather call his friends than go out on the town to meet people and make memories, but he pushed that away for now.

“Hi, Eddie!” Andy greeted. There was a flurry of activity behind him. Eddie could recognize Buck by the color of his hair.

“Am I interrupting a party?”

“Oh, no. Buck’s just entertaining a few guests. Well, guests is probably the wrong term for it. He made some new friends from floor one a few weeks ago and they’ve stuck around since. Lew and Dick were here earlier, but they left for date night.” Andy faced the camera towards where Buck and a few unrecognizable guys were playing a tense game of what appeared to be Go Fish. Eddie loved them already. “Hey, guys! Say hi to Eddie! You’ll meet him when he comes back home in a few weeks!”

They all waved distractedly and went back to their game.

“Sorry, Andy,” Buck said. “There’s a lot at stake with this game.”

Andy was smiling when he came back on the screen. Eddie couldn’t help but smile as well.

“So do they have names?”

“The small one is Frank, he’s also friends with Luz. They’re kind of a nightmare duo.” An offended, ‘hey I heard that!’ came from the cards table. Andy happily ignored it. “Sid is the babyfaced one. He’s a childhood friend of Eugene’s. He’d meant to just come up for a visit, but when he found out 1B was empty, he convinced his fiance to move up here with him. They’re about as proper southern as you can get.”

“1B was empty? You’re kidding me. I thought Trombley would never leave.”

“Nix might’ve had something to do with that.”

“I wish I had gotten to see that.” Truer words had never been spoken. Trombley was fucking crazy. “Well, I miss home.”

“Home misses you.”

Eddie considered telling him now. This would be his last tour. He had to accept that the lifestyle he’d wanted when he was sixteen no longer fit what he wanted at twenty-five. But he couldn’t. Andy just looked so happy. So instead, he decided that conversation could wait until there wasn’t a screen and several hundred miles between them. He asked about Andy’s class, how his students were doing this year, and tried to keep a level head.

 

They threw a party for him when he got back. Most of the building was there, much to Eddie’s surprise. He got to meet Sid and his fiance, Mary. She was as sweet as Sid was unnecessarily polite. Eddie thought they made an adorably old fashioned couple. Sid promised he wasn’t so stiff all the time, which he backed up with stories of his and Eugene’s childhood. According to Snafu, it was hilarious what Sid and Eugene considered roughhousing.

He wasn’t one to cry over something so normal as a coming home party, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t get a little misty eyed when Snafu gave him a manly handshake and surprisingly comfortable hug. He was okay with pretending it didn’t happen.

“Y’know he looks up to you.” Andy said as he stepped into the kitchen where Eddie was refilling his drink. “Snaf does. Eugene says he’ll actually talk seriously about how cool it is that you’re a traveling man. Snafu always wanted to run off, but never had the money to. We all know Snafu is reluctant to talk serious about anything.”

And, shit, that makes Eddie freeze right up. He didn’t count on that. He didn’t factor that into his decision to stay in one place. That fucked everything up right there. And to think it’d be Snafu of all people to look up to him. Would it be selfish to stop now?

“What’s wrong?”

“I just didn’t know that.” Eddie said. Andy didn’t believe that for a second.

“You don’t have to lie to me, you know.” Andy nudged him.

There was laughter from the living room as Vera and Renee ganged up on Sledge to make him dance. He was beet red, but laughing. Stella was giving Mary a Currahee welcome by updating her on who’s who and what’s going on with their lives. They were giggling on the couch, and by the looks of it, they’d be best friends by the end of the night. Leckie was playing a game of Flappy Bird on his phone, and Hoosier took the opportunity to watch over his shoulder. Ray and Rudy were dancing questionably in Dick’s direction, much to Lew’s amusement. Ron was actually mingling with people, Babe was happily petting a sleeping Gene in his lap, and Guarnere and Toye were trying to one up each other with their heroic firefighter stories (Toye was winning). Eddie loved this. He loved his friends. He hated being somewhere unfamiliar every week. And once he settled down and started an actual family, he knew it would only be harder to leave.

“I’m quitting.” He said.

“You’re quitting...what exactly? Smoking? Can’t believe that one, no matter how much I want to.” Andy joked and sipped his drink.

“I’m quitting music. Well, at least touring and trying to get signed. It’s not right for me anymore.” Eddie looked down into his drink. If he could just pretend this was a casual conversation, maybe it would be.

“Oh! Well, if you ever want a teaching job, you know they’re trying to expand the music program in the local school district. I can always pull a few strings. Guitar pun not intended.” It was so casual, the way he said it. As if Eddie didn’t just tell him he was giving up his supposed dream, as if Andy wasn’t an angel for trying to help him out. He couldn’t help but set his drink down, take Andy’s face in his hands, and kiss him.

It took Andy by surprise, but it didn’t stop him from responding. He kissed back deeply, and Eddie wondered why he ever thought it would be worth it to give this up.

“Hey- oh. Okay. Okay, goodbye.” Ray’s voice cut through the moment. “I’m just going to...hey! Sledge! Your parents are making out in the kitchen!” He flew through the swinging doors before they even comprehended he was there.

“Well, there goes any hope on keeping this on the down low.” Andy kissed him again. “Not that I care much about that.” And again. “I’m glad you’re staying here.” And again.

“I’m glad too.”

**Author's Note:**

> if there's any thing in specific you'd like me to focus on, I can do that!  
> I'm planning either a chapter focusing on Guarnere and Toye or Speirs/Lip next.


End file.
